“Apple Inc. may be selling the higher-margin iPhone 6 Plus at a faster clip than it expected in China, according to new data,” Jennifer Booton reports for MarketWatch.
“A chart published Wednesday by mobile marketing company AppLovin shows that iPhone 6 Plus usage in the world’s largest consumer market is catching up to the smaller-screen iPhone 6,” Booton reports. “In AppLovin’s latest iPhone report, it said iPhone 6 to iPhone 6 Plus usage is at a ratio of 60/40 in China, up from 65/35 a few weeks ago, which indicates usage has shifted in favor of the Plus in recent weeks. The trend has also occurred in the U.S., though to a lesser extent.”
“This could spell ‘strong earnings for Apple’ in its coming quarter, which will reflect the launch of the two phones and the key holiday shopping season, according to AppLovin, which tracks smartphone usage.,” Booton reports. “This backs other bullish data from Wall Street analysts, including UBS, which said iPhone sales in China outstripped those in the U.S. during the December quarter for the first time, and Morgan Stanley, which estimated that the Plus’ profit margins are as much as 61% higher than the iPhone 6.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last December:
We, including Apple themselves, won’t know the true popularity of each iPhone model until supply and demand have come into balance for each model. Demand for iPhone 6 Plus continues to far outstrips supply worldwide.
VAVOOOOM !
But all the analysts said that the iPhone was too expensive for the Chinese market, also that Apple faced strong homegrown competition from Xiaomi and Lenovo?
I refuse to believe all the analysts were wrong. 😉
The increase in 6+ sales is probably due to the recent increased supply of the 6+.
The Chinese New Year is February 19, 2015; that should equate to strong sales in Apple fiscal 2Q as well.
It’s going to be amusing. The iPhone is selling in China faster than Apple expected it to, but probably not faster than Wall Street expects it to. There seems to be a disconnection along the way where Apple might be satisfied but Wall Street will be disappointed. We’ll see. I’m looking at Netflix’s share gains percentage over the past couple of days and it will be interesting to compare it to Apple’s share gains percentage upon quarterly results.